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Title Type Added Modified Created
Link Yes Magazine remote url Link 2004-02-16 2004-10-30
  This mag is recommended by "George Kao":http://georgekao.com. It is a project of the positive futures network: <blockquote>The Positive Futures Network (PFN) is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting people’s active engagement in creating a just, sustainable, and compassionate world. Millions of people worldwide are engaged in creative change. Their work and vision carries the potential for an evolutionary leap – to a world that works for all. To realize this potential, we must focus on positive outcomes and encourage all people to be part of a powerful, inclusive process of change. In the years since PFN was founded, our communications and networking activities have helped deepen the commitment of hundreds of thousands of people to contribute to transformational change in their personal lives, their communities, their nation, and the world.</blockquote> I find the "State of the possible retreats":http://yesmagazine.org/retreats/index.htm particularly interesting.
Link Hope Magazine remote url Link 2004-02-16 2004-10-30
  Another "GK":http://georgekao.com recommendation. I don't like this one as well as "YESmag":../yesmag. (just from dealing with the website). It is not easy to get a sense of their purpose- <blockquote> Its mission is to help us understand ourselves and each other, to face individual and societal challenges with a courage and a sense of the possible, and to celebrate human values. </blockquote>
Link Walton Feed / Rainy Day Foods remote url Link 2004-02-21 2004-02-21
  If you are carfree and living far from your favorite food coop, and miss your soaked organic oat and buckwheat groats, Walton Feed can help. Their prices are great. I was able to order only 50lbs and have them shipped to my door for less than the same amount of goods would have cost if I picked them up at local coop (including bulk and member discounts). There are many thought-provoking articles and resources on their site as well. Maybe in the future, when disaster strikes, the carfree people will be able to make it through as well as the Mormons.
Link City of Villages remote url Link 2004-02-24 2004-02-24
  A new urbanism vision for San Diego will at least be better that the way it is now! "The Paseo":http://www.sdsuniverse.info/story.asp?id=13899 is one of the more pedestrian-friendly projects near the trolley stop at SDSU that earned a designation as a City of Villages pilot project.
Link Reason Surface Transportation Studies remote url Link 2004-02-24 2004-06-24
  They are coming down clearly on the side of continued car-use and things like bus rapid transit instead of rail systems. What are they *not* taking into account in their studies? An "article":http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20040217-9999-1m17rail.html on their *Great Rail Disaster* study made it into the San Diego Union Tribune not long ago. I got the feeling that the planners at city hall are fairly pro-rail, at least in this case, however.
Link A poem on a Frightening Substance remote url Link 2004-03-06 2004-03-10
  I've no more to say.
Link Riin's Carfree links remote url Link 2004-03-06 2004-03-06
  I spent some time browsing the carfree yahoo group. Riin's page has some links to others (besides her) who are active on that list.
Link Walk21 remote url Link 2004-03-11 2004-03-11
  Welcome to Walk21 - the site dedicated to the support of professionals who have the responsibility for developing, coordinating and promoting walking initiatives.
Link America Walks remote url Link 2004-03-11 2004-03-11
  "America Walks is a national coalition of local advocacy groups dedicated to promoting walkable communities. Our members are autonomous grassroots organizations from across the country, each working to improve conditions for walking in their area. The mission of America Walks is to foster the development of community-based pedestrian advocacy groups, to educate the public about the benefits of walking, and, when appropriate, to act as a collective voice for walking advocates. To carry out our mission, we provide a support network for local pedestrian advocacy groups. We offer advice about how to get started and how to be effective with public officials and engineering and design professionals."
Link Walkable Communities, Inc. remote url Link 2004-03-11 2004-03-11
  "A non-profit corporation ... organized for the express purposes of helping whole communities, whether they are large cities or small towns, or parts of communities, i.e. neighborhoods, business districts, parks, school districts, subdivisions, specific roadway corridors, etc., become more walkable and pedestrian friendly." Beautiful. See especially the "Walkable communities by region":http://www.walkable.org/article6.htm section by Dan Burden. I am ecstatic to find this... While I value the "carbusting" approach... I'm not too motivated to work that angle. Walkable communities on the other hand... Maybe in the future I'll be working more with walkamerica, walk21 and the like! In addition, Dan has started a "walkable communities listserve":http://lists.topica.com/lists/walkable/.
Link Walk San Diego remote url Link 2004-03-11 2004-03-11
  Oh joy of joys! from their site: VISION We envision San Diego communities that invite walking as a preferred choice for transportation and recreation for all people. MISSION WalkSanDiego is dedicated to enhancing the livability of communities, through promotion, education, and advocacy, by making walking a safe and viable choice for all people. HISTORY WalkSanDiego was formed in 1998 to address the unique needs of pedestrians within the San Diego region. Our board consists of transportation professionals, land use planners, health advocates, injury prevention specialists, and residents who want to improve the pedestrian environment. We believe the region's traffic congestion is largely due to poor planning and few alternatives to driving, forcing everyone to use cars for most trips. Many trips could be made on foot within one's own community. We can help make it happen. WalkSanDiego is a 501 (c) (3) organization, so your membership donation is tax deductible as a charitable contribution to the extent allowed by law. " They have a "newsletter":http://www.walksandiego.org/pages/newsletter.html
Link Walkinginfo.org remote url Link 2004-03-11 2004-03-11
  "resources to make your community walkable." "The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) is a clearinghouse for information about health and safety, engineering, advocacy, education, enforcement and access and mobility. The PBIC serves anyone interested in pedestrian and bicycle issues, including planners, engineers, private citizens, advocates, educators, police enforcement and the health community."
Link Indymedia San Diego remote url Link 2004-03-14 2004-03-14
  (No description)
Link Activist San Diego remote url Link 2004-03-14 2004-03-14
  Their mission statement: "Activist San Diego is a social justice organization that promotes and facilitates the development of an active, inter-related, progressive community in San Diego through networking, culture and electronic technology."
Link UCSD Campus Impressions remote url Link 2004-03-14 2004-03-14
  Usually I find college campuses to be among the few respites from car-infested surroundings... There are carfree areas on UCSD, but the campus in general has the feel of a "Le Corbusian":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier / Modernist playground. Imagine monster buildings widely spread apart towering above diminuitive pedestrians, who must walk a long way from one towering monster to another. The newer buildings, for example, "Eleanor Roosevelt College":http://provost.ucsd.edu/roosevelt/, look like something out of "Gattaca":http://images.google.com/images?q=gattaca. The area around the glider port, along the coast, above black's beach, on tall cliffs above the ocean, is memorable, and if it weren't for the frequent flyovers of military jets and helicopters, would be powerfully peaceful and meditative: the long views, the mesmerizing patterns of incoming waves, blue sky, soaring birds, breeze, fantastically horrible erosion, surfers ascending like billy goats & strange men in parked cars.
Link Envision San Diego remote url Link 2004-04-10 2004-12-26
  A San Diego visioning project... apparently they have events, but not an email list to notify people about the events (I missed hearing about a talk at SDSU until after it). It's a start! Here is their "web discussion board":http://www.signonsandiego.com/communities/envision/.
Link The Thoreau Institute remote url Link 2004-04-10 2004-04-10
  I like Thoreau and libertarianism / true liberalism but I hate cars & planes & helicopters & the external costs thereof & environments built for people who use them. This is a pro-car site. <blockquote>Inspired both by Henry David Thoreau's love of the natural world and his dislike of big government, the Thoreau Institute seeks ways to protect the environment without regulation, bureaucracy, or central control. The Institute was founded in 1975 under the name of Cascade Holistic Economic Consultants to help environmentalists and others understand and influence public land management. Since then, the Institute has worked as a consultant to or partner with every major national environmental group as well as numerous state and local groups. Between 1980 and 1998 the Institute also published a magazine, first titled Forest Planning and most recently called Different Drummer. Today the Institute distributes its work over the internet or in books such as The Vanishing Automobile and Other Urban Myths. The Institute's Board of Directors includes representatives of a variety of public land interest groups. The board hopes that it can break down the barriers between interest groups that have prevented the development of good public land policies.</blockquote>
Link The American Dream Coalition remote url Link 2004-04-10 2004-04-10
  From their site: "The American Dream Coalition will help its members effectively support the American dream of freedom, mobility, and affordable homeownership while it helps them oppose coercive land-use policies and wasteful transportation projects. The American dream of freedom, mobility, and affordable homeownership has produced enormous benefits for Americans: * Homeownership -- More than 80 percent of Americans say their ideal home is a single-family house with a yard. Homes are one of the best investments a young family can make. The most important source of funds for new businesses in the U.S. is mortgages on the businessowner's homes. * Mobility -- Automobiles give Americans access to better and higher paying jobs, lower-cost consumer goods, rapid-response emergency services, distant friends and relatives, and all sorts of recreation opportunities. * Freedom -- According to the Heritage Foundation's 2002 Index of Economic Freedom, nations that protect property rights and other forms of economic freedom have per capita incomes at least six times greater than nations will little or no economic freedom. Higher incomes mean higher environmental quality as well. Despite these benefits, this dream is being challenged by a new planning doctrine known as smart growth, which calls for dense urban development, restrictions on rural development, rail transit boondoggles, and barriers to auto driving. Despite its attractive name, smart growth is one of the greatest threats to American mobility, affordable housing, and freedom today. * Homeownership -- Smart growth's urban-growth boundaries and regulation of home construction make housing unaffordable to most families. Housing in San Jose, Portland, and other smart-growth cities is far less affordable than housing in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and other less-regulated cities. * Mobility -- Though traffic congestion costs Americans more than $60 billion a year, smart growth actually seeks to increase congestion in order to discourage people from driving. * Freedom -- Smart growth requires draconian restrictions on property owners and businesses. Limits on rural development, minimum-density zoning in urban areas, and strict rules for retailers and other businesses all impede economic freedom and increase costs to homebuyers and consumers." Their "DC conference":http://www.ti.org/amdream.html spawned a discussion list "PreservingTheAmericanDream":http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PreservingtheAmericanDream/ as well.
Link Public purpose / Wendell Cox remote url Link 2004-04-10 2004-04-10
  <blockquote>"Urban rail is an effective strategy for controlling traffic congestion where residential population densities are very high and where there are extremely large and dense central business districts. Examples are Tokyo, New York, London, Paris and Hong Kong. The Public Purpose is not opposed to urban rail. The Public Purpose is opposed to waste and deception. ... One of the principal reasons that "smart growth" or "compact city" urban strategies cannot reach their objective of reducing traffic congestion (or reducing its growth) is that there is a strong positive relationship between higher population density and higher traffic volumes."*":http://www.publicpurpose.com/pp57-density.htm ... Cox noted that he considered it to be a "badge of honor to be on such a distinguished list," though indicated that Sprawlwatch had "rather exaggerated" the facts by characterizing him and others on the list as "pro-sprawl." He indicated that a more accurate characterization would have been "pro-American Dream." "</blockquote> Cox and his sites "publicpurpose.com":http://www.publicpurpose.com/ and "demographia.com":http://www.demographia.com/ are apologists for suburb-style, car-oriented development. This makes sense if your goal is "preservation of the american dream." Carfreeuniverse.org is for people who have grown up with *that* american dream, or otherwise experienced more of it than they would care to. I'm no fan of being a daily dependent of public transit. I almost want to say my ideal carfree city is "Fez":http://carfree.com/fes/fes-al-bali.html, but as I value freedom from others' use of amplified sound and others' abusive screaming at eachother, and noise from other motorized things, as well as access to wild nature, and I've not been to Fez, I cannot say for sure. But Fez does not have public transit. Also: in a wholly anarcho-capitalist system, there would be no taxpayer funding of anything, including roads. And government building and maintaining of roads is partly what got us into the mess of the American dream. Cox runs several discussion lists: * "Transport Policy":http://www.publicpurpose.com/ut-group.htm -- Direct to "http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-policy/":http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-policy/ * "Urban Policy":http://www.demographia.com/db-group.htm -- direct to "http://groups.yahoo.com/group/urban-policy/":http://groups.yahoo.com/group/urban-policy/ You might also enjoy David Brooks' "Our Sprawling, Supersize Utopia":http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/04/magazine/04EXURBAN.html?pagewanted=all&position= or try "google":http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Our+Sprawling%2C+Supersize+Utopia%22 "Our" is a presumption.
Link Sprawlwatch: Research on Pro-Sprawl Players and Messages remote url Link 2004-04-11 2004-04-11
  "Opposition to smart growth efforts comes from a small number of vocal critics affiliated with private "property rights" organizations, free market think tanks and home builder and development interests. In brief, "property rights" advocates claim that controls on growth trample individual property rights, free enterprise advocates say smart growth efforts tamper with free market mechanisms, and building and real estate development interests claim it is consumer preferences that determine sprawl-type development patterns, not builders." Sprawlwatch has a "newsletter":http://www.sprawlwatch.org/newsletter.html
Link Dev Carey remote url Link 2004-04-16 2004-04-16
  I found out about Dev Carey from the staff bios page at "nbtsc.org":http://nbtsc.org/staff_bios.htm. There it is written, "He can do many things, but one thing he can't do is separate himself from the morality of any given situation. Especially the environmental morality of any given situation...." ...A common characteristic of the pathologically carfree. And sure enough, he was. It is even more rare to find a conscientiously carfree couple with children- Dev was/is not- for that look to Allison & Schmuel of "The Farm":../thefarm. "Google on Dev Carey":http://www.google.com/search?q=%22dev+carey%22. He reminds me of "Frank Cook":../hoboschool#frank.
Link Superbia: 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods remote url Link 2004-04-16 2004-04-16
  A beautiful article on transitioning suburbia to a nicer place. And there is a "book too":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0865714908?v=glance.
Link Critical Mass bicycle ride remote url Link 2004-04-17 2004-04-17
  Michael Bluejay has this one covered: "criticalmass.info":http://criticalmassrides.info/, though I'm linking to another site below. I've been on CM rides in Seattle, DC, NYC, Austin, and possibly elsewhere. Different cities at different times had different flavored rides. Some were crazy and militant (laying down in intersections), others were peaceable, law-abiding (stopping at all lights), and themed (e.g., Monica Lewinsky affair ride in DC). I never was a CM devotee, but went at least once in each new city I lived in, in general. Now, after riding across most of the US and some of Mexico, I've just about had it with *ever* bicycling on the same road as cars... I'd rather never be around cars. And I get impatient with the bicycle--it is after all another machine, and has many of the problems of cars, but in miniature. These days I walk or run. One place I loved to ride was northern Virginia, on a circular route that took me on carfree bike paths and the wonderfully peaceful & beautiful carfree C&O canal, and over the Potomac near the inspiring Great Falls, and on very car-lite suburban roads.
Link me, my life + infrastructure carfree / driving blog remote url Link 2004-04-18 2004-04-18
  An impressive blog I found when looking at which sites "link to this one":http://www.gigablast.com/search?link=carfreeuniverse.org (not many) using the gigablast search engine. Heidi led me to a new "carfree song (sortof)":../lordMrFord which I spent hours fiddling with... She reminds me that there are some people who seem to be able to manage / produce / assimilate vast amounts of text with frequency.
Link Eat the state remote url Link 2004-05-05 2004-10-30
  Volume 8 no. 16.5 that I just received by email hit the state out of the park... They rock. Subscribe to their email/paper mail "here":http://eatthestate.org/stock/subscribe.htm. I have to wonder if watching the total collapse of the US empire & foreign policy because it is run by idiots is going to be as painless as reading Eatthestate... I doubt it. Or maybe the idiots are not the problem, it is the system? It does seem the US's days are numbered. If you're in the market for more such stuff perhaps try "zmag":http://zmag.org/. "This":http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/arnold/writings/ca2.html is some of what I should be reading for class, and seems related in a way. Fascinating was the combination of "Rufin's Globalia":http://nytimes.com/2004/05/04/books/04RUFI.html?pagewanted=all&position= and "Kristof's Pro-bush Iran":http://nytimes.com/2004/05/05/opinion/05KRIS.html. And moveon rightfully monopolizing on "torture":http://www.moveon.org/torture/. And what are we not paying attention to while distracted by all this? Also reading about US city pension fund woes. Yet San Luis Obispo, CA is run well at least, it seems. I'm reminded of Ludlum's old thriller novel _Parsifal Mosaic_ in which the secretary of state goes insane and takes all of world security with him... I don't recommend the book. Oh! And combine all that with "Report Warns of Infiltration by Al Qaeda in U.S. Prisons":http://nytimes.com/2004/05/05/national/05CHAP.html Reminding me of Grisham's _the Brethren_ and "Disney Forbidding Distribution of (Michael Moore's) Film That Criticizes Bush":http://nytimes.com/2004/05/05/national/05DISN.html. But eatthestate Volume 8 no. 16.5 is the essence of all of that.

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